Sunday, January 19, 2014

Last week, we dropped my boss to the Good Governance Summit in the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. From there we moved to Makati. I had no idea about my companion's statement. He kept on saying kansi. I also kept on asking what is that?

Finally, we reached the place. Our purpose - eat breakfast and lunch at the same time - brunch. Good timing because we were then hungry already.

I use to eat Ilonggo foods. This is because I had two Ilonggo bosses. I also have some Ilonggo office mates. This paved way to my Ilonggo diet from time to time.

For myself, I was born to coconut milk and sili country. I grew up eating vegetables in coconut milk, fish in coconut milk, chicken in coconut milk - and of course, we sprinkle those foods with hot spice.

Kansi bulalo

This new food encounter of mine is called kansi, the so-called Ilonggo preferred bulalo. I am familiar with eating bulalo but this new noun is unique. Although, I am not good at describing food tastes one from another, kansi soup is so nice that I can't even smell beef in it. We paired the kansi bulalo with rice, pork barbecue and boneless bangus. Taste, of course, will not be enough without kalamansi and sili. Perfect brunch.

Boneless bangus

More rice and kansi soup

We ended up so full for our breakfast and lunch. We took out kansi soup and lumpiang ubod. Kansi bulalo per serving is just 145 pesos (about 3 dollars).

By the way, in my short stop in the restaurant, I did not get the entire details, What I can only share is that it is located along Sampaloc Street, Barangay San Antonio, Makati City. The restaurant's ambiance is homey. I learned that its owner is Ilonggo and the restaurant is somewhat an extension of a house.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Whenever I pass by The Block at SM North EDSA, I just simply pass without noticing the details of plenty of shops around. I always see that restaurant named Bubble Tea but I never tried to see what's in there. As the name suggests, I only thought of it as a tea shop until friends brought me there about a week ago.

This glass reminds me of Octoberfest.

Sounds funny but it was my first time to dine there and my first time to drink a milk tea. I had a lot of tea in Japan and tasted so many of them. However, in the Philippines, teas have lots of flavoring. I was looking for oolong tea but I got to see plenty of flavoring.

If you can't tell the flavor just choose your color.

The tea served to us reminds me of Octoberfest because of the oversize beer glass. When tea bubbles, there is more than that at Bubble Tea. Inside the shop, I was surprised of the salivating desserts and cakes. I was fascinated by the Red Velvet. I hope to try it one day (in the future). LOL

Red Velvet and Matcha Tiramisu

What was most intriguing to me is the rice meal. We were there for lunch, definitely it means rice meal. I ordered my fish cake while my companions had the bigger ones.

Fish cake drizzled soy ginger sauce

Fish cake drizzled soy ginger sauce is a special marinated fish with a distinct kind of soy and ginger sauce, perfectly made with garlic fried rice.

So which one is the Beef Bulgogi? It is a sliced beef marinated in Korean sauce with succhini on Korean hot stone.

Before, prayers grace before meals. Nowadays, cameras and smart phones grace the meals with flashes. How grateful we should be for the foods we partake. Let us not forget to thank the Lord for giving us food. Thanks to my friends who made me discover Bubble Tea. When tea bubbles, there is more than that as well.

A day before I left for Christmas vacation, a group of Chinese volunteers visited me in the office. I only know one of them, who remained a friend after we met with his colleagues in Japan. Thanks for some Chinese presents. I had none to give them, thanks they remembered.